Neighbors Use Nextdoor to Help Find Missing Child

One Bay Area neighborhood recently used Nextdoor for something critical: reuniting a lost child with her parents.

On a recent weeknight, Maxwell Park neighbor Michelle realized that her 10-year-old daughter had wandered into their backyard around bedtime, but never came back inside. After searching her yard with no luck, Michelle called the neighbors across the street to ask if her daughter had gone to their house. She hadn’t.

Within minutes, dozens of neighbors were outside calling the missing girl’s name.

While Michelle called the police, her neighbor immediately posted to Nextdoor that a neighborhood child was missing. Within minutes, dozens of neighbors – many of whom had never met the girl or her family – were outside calling the missing girl’s name, walking up and down the street, and driving around the greater community to look for her alongside the Oakland Police Department.

Hours later, around midnight, the little girl came wandering out of a neighbor’s backyard – sleepy, but unharmed. She had managed to navigate several fences and made her way into a neighbor’s backyard before falling asleep in the bushes.

Her parents were overwhelmingly relieved to have her home safe and sound – and are grateful to their Nextdoor neighbors for immediately mobilizing to help find her.